Open heart surgery

[Seaweed]

Well you know how it is life is always throwing you a cuve ball
After 6 yrs on pd i was just told i needed open heart surgery

Has any One. experience this problem

Like a little input please

[Michael Murphy]

I have not had open heart surgery but have had 3 angioplastys and a cardiac abalation.  2 heart attacks and incidents of ventricular tachycardia.  One of the side effects of hemo is large fluid removal puts tremendous strain on the heart.  Now I religiously visit my cardiologist every 6 months.  .

[Cupcake]

Best of luck to you, Seaweed. Think of it as a plumbing job and make sure you are at a big center that does lots of these procedures so they know how to manage any preoperative issues (like renal failure). Keep us posted.

[sahern]

I had one two years ago.  It took me a little while to get back on my feet.  The pain was bearable but I did not feel well for a while.  I was in the hospital for 20 days.  They had trouble getting my blood pressure to stabilize.  The hospital I was in did not deal with PD dialysis very often so they had to ask my wife for help to get everything right.  It was hard on her as I have always done dialysis on my own  so she had to try and remember what she learned in training a year before.  Make sure the hospital knows what they are doing for PD and you will be ahead of the game.  Before surgery they said they were going to switch me to HD for a while and that is what they do with most open heart surgeries.  I was able to get my Neph to fight for me to stay on PD and it worked out just fine.. 

The biggest thing about open heart surgery that no one told me is that it can really screw with your memory.  For the first two or three days I was not sure what day or year it was..  I kept thinking it was 1978.  I also wanted to go flying all of the time.  There was a small plane airport next to hospital and I could her the planes taking off.  It was bad enough they had to put alarms on me to keep me from getting out of bed.  I also had trouble focusing when trying to read for about a week.  After that everything came back very fast and everything is back the way it was before the surgery. 

I did hade some trouble walking as my legs felt very weak.  I was also not sure about my balance. This lasted for six to eight weeks.  I ordered a walker and the day it came it was like a light switch was turned on.  My legs started to work overnight.  It must have been the thought of having to use a walker that made my legs start to work like normal.

If you have any questions let me know.  Good luck

[Charlie B53]

I had my triple years before I started PD. So I'm no help there.

I was only in five days and home again.

Those first couple of days you most likely won't remember a thing.  They will have you so well drugged because of the pain you may not remember your name.

I am sure they put in a urine cath, but it was gone before I remember anything.  Thank the Lord for that!

I felt better rapidly, but you will have to remember to limit yourself.  Every cough will remind you that your breastbone is wired together, and is going to take time for that bone to heal.

There have been Guys try too hard and rip out those wires.  Immediately returned to surgery and re-wired.  I bet that was no Fun.

Stay Careful.

Go to Cardiac Rehab and LISTEN to what they tell you.

Post your progress so we can know  you are doing Fine.

Take Care,

Charlile B53

[justagirl2325]

My husband had one, a year and a bit into HD (he never did PD).  It was a hard surgery but he recovered very well.  A lot of lying around in the hospital as they did HD over 8 hour sessions at first,, slow and easy on the heart they said.  He was in for a week and then home.  His experience was a lot like Charlie B53's - you just never want to cough after and god forbid you have to sneeze.

[Seaweed]

i made a post , but finally found this org post .
i had it done 2 months ago it was a quad bypass , i feel find now i taking car of the rest of my problems im have surgery done on my hernia now .

boy  i was mess up, the great thing is iam making it